I was jolted a few days ago when I stumbled on a letter written by my nine-year-old son. I was the subject matter. The letter was addressed to no one, but he did ask God a few questions, so I assume he wrote it to God. My initial reaction was anger, then outrage. “What came over you, this boy?” I asked him. He later apologized. As my anger subsided, my mind went back to a little over 40 years ago, when I was his age. I did tackle my father, but not that hard. In fact, the only tackle I could remember, at nine, was when I had malaria. My father felt I was too weak to give myself my bath. After they had run the water, he took me into the bathroom and wanted to remove my clothes, but I resisted. He was stunned: “what do you have there that you are hiding, “he asked sarcastically, and stormed out.

Mr. Rauf Aregbesola is a delight to the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, whose joy it is to see any functionary of the All Progressives Congress who, they believe, has fallen short of the celestial standards their own party claims for itself. They are consistently aided, inadvertently, by some arms of the government, particularly organs like the Economic And Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, which sometime stumble over the hurdle of fairness to all. For instance, the crime-busters recently failed to arraign someone described as “an associate” of President Muhammadu Buhari, unlike they did with several PDP members who had been accused of benefitting from the widely distributed largesse accruing from the 2.1 billion dollars of security funds, under the control of Colonel Sambo Dasuki, (Rtd.) erstwhile National Security Adviser to former President Goodluck Jonathan.

The Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Ms. Christine Largarde, a fortnight ago visited Nigeria and held crucial talks with President Muhammadu Buhari and other top echelon of the Nigerian government. She also had interactions with legislators, business leaders, prominent women, and the civil society. Ms. Lagarde prior to the visit looked forward to productive meetings with President Buhari on how his team was addressing the economic challenges occasioned by low oil prices. At the end of the visit, the Bretton Woods Chief advised Nigeria to devalue her currency, increase value added tax, withdraw petroleum subsidy and so forth.

Our soldiers are stretched. And when stretched minds snap rebukes are measured, condemnations muffled . They are giving it their all, fighting demons with gloves. The depravity of the other side makes any rule following seem a handicap. We knew something was amiss but we didn’t know that the billions of dollars meant for the war were this footloose. Against the asymmetry and barbarism of boko haram for whom killing and maiming is a compulsive obsession , the waywardness of the ‘boko haram dollars’ was egregious evil.

ERITREA is a relatively unknown African country. Little news filters out. In October 2012, I wanted to pay with a hundred dollar bill in a Washington supermarket, and the cashier declined. He asked me to pay with a smaller denomination, which I did not have. Noticing his features, I asked if he was of African decent. He asked if I knew Ethiopia. He said his country is near Ethiopia. I asked, Eritrea? “Yes” “So why didn’t you simply say you are from Eritrea?” “I tell people, and they never seem to have heard of such a country”